Our regularly revised feature keeps you up to date on the Kickstarter games worth watching, and helps you track projects both before and after they’re funded.

Welcome to the Kickstarter Compendium, a gathering of games and game-related projects that we’ve come across that deserve your attention. The crowd-funding model for video games has resulted in some amazing new game ideas in recent months, and new projects are going up on a weekly basis that deserve your attention. 

The only problem is keeping track of it all – what’s worth watching, and what are these different projects about? As an ongoing feature, our Kickstarter Compendium is your guide to games seeking funding through Kickstarter. After funding projects are complete, this feature will also track what games (and game-related projects) got funded and what games didn’t, and where possible, offer links to the projects as they are developed. 

Games Seeking Funding

Alpha Colony: A Tribute to M.U.L.E.
Developer: DreamQuest Games
Fundraising Goal: $500,000
Funds Due By: July 15, 2012

DreamQuest has the license to M.U.L.E, an extremely influential PC game from the 1980s, and intends to make not only a faithful remake of the original game, but also a tribute to it. Alpha Colony is that tribute game, and combines gameplay mechanics from M.U.L.E. and Settlers of Catan.

Draw a Stickman Epic
Developer: Hitcents
Fundraising Goal: $50,000
Funds Due By: July 29, 2012

Draw a Stickman will be a Scribblenauts-style iOS and Android game which allows you to draw your own hero and tools, etc. to overcome obstacles.

Endless Migration 2
Developer: HotAirRaccoon Games
Fundraising Goal: $8,000
Funds Due By: July 10, 2012

Endless Migration 2 is a sequel to the original mobile game, Endless Migration, in which players control a flock of birds. The sequel will set your flock of birds adrift in time, and they must be led back home to Canada.

Kaiju Combat
Developer: Sunstone Games
Fundraising Goal: $350,000
Funds Due By: August 2, 2012

Kaiju Combat is a fighting game being developed by some of the same people who developed the 2002, 2004, and 2007 Godzilla fighting games. Kaiju Combat will be for 1-4 players, will be released on PC only initially, and will possibly incorporate the Godzilla license.

Lennie
Developer: Cryogenic Studios
Fundraising Goal: $10,000
Funds Due By: July 29, 2012

Lennie is a 2D platformer about a robot. The art is in children's-book style and the narrative is influenced by the Japanese storytelling tradition.

OUYA
Project Type: Console
Fundraising Goal: $950,000
Funds Due By: August 9, 2012

OUYA is a new console powered by Android. It will be completely open in terms of software development (anyone can publish to it), and hardware hacking (which won't void your warranty). Developers like the creator of Prince of Persia and companies like Mojang and thatgamecompany have expressed their excitement for its possibilities and its potential competitiveness in the console market.

OverClocked ReMix Album, Final Fantasy VI: Balance and Ruin
Project Type: Music
Fundraising Goal: $15,000
Funds Due By: August 9, 2012

OC ReMix is hoping to create a 4-disc tribute album to Final Fantasy VI. The talent behind the album includes the composers for Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac, Shantae, Mass Effect 2, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. If the album is funded, it will be available for free to the public.

QONQR
Developer: QONQR, LLC
Fundraising Goal: $25,000
Funds Due By: August 17, 2012

QONQR is a location-based MMO game for iOS and Windows Phone in need of a map-driven interface so that players have the ability to "capture" buildings and other landmarks in their actual area (such as the airport across the highway from their house).

The Realm of Thyïlia
Developer: Flying Llama
Fundraising Goal: $20,000
Funds Due By: August 6, 2012

Flying Llama, a team based in Finland, is attempting to make a free online RPG that does not include grinding mechanics. The game will be in top-down, pseudo-3D style, and will include three playable character races.

Rival Threads: Last Class Heroes
Developer: Studio Kontrabida
Fundraising Goal: $5,000
Funds Due By: July 10, 2012

Rival Threads: Last Class Heroes is a 2D side-scrolling action RPG that started development last year, but could use one last push to help with Unity Pro and other related finishing costs. You play as a high school student who controls a marionette, which is a kind of avatar that accurately reflects the contents of each puppeteer's soul.

Skyjacker
Developer: Digitilus
Fundraising Goal: $200,000
Funds Due By: July 23

This first-person free roaming space combat game aims to deliver space adventure, customizable spaceships, and broad freedom to play the way one likes. Among other things, the developers promise the ability to travel from the surface of a planet up into orbit without any break in the action.

Super Retro Squad
Developer: Exploding Rabbit
Fundraising Goal: $10,000
Funds Due By: July 19

The makers of Super Mario Bros. Crossover bring us this mash-up sidescroller starring a host of familiar faces from video gaming. Whether playing as the guy who isn’t from Contra or the guy who isn’t from Castlevania (or six others) you’ll travel through different worlds inspired by each of the game’s characters. 40 levels are being created across the game’s eight worlds. 

Z.
Developer: Downward Viral
Fundraising Goal: $100,000
Funds Due By: July 14, 2012

Z. is a a zombie-themed downloadable trading card game that can either be played digitally or with physical copies of the cards. Special guest cards include Tim Schafer and Sean Baby.

[NEXT UP: Peruse the numerous games that have been successfully funded through Kickstarter, and track their progress after funding is complete]